Divitibus responsa dabit Phryx augur, et Indus 585 590 Hæ tamen et partûs subeunt discrimen, et omnes Tantum artes hujus, tantum medicamina possunt, 595 584. A Phrygian.] Tully, de Divinat. lib. i. says, that these people, and the Cilicians and Arabs, were very assiduous in taking omens from the flight of birds. 585. Indian, &c.] The Brachmans were Indian philosophers, who remain to this day. They hold, with Pythagoras, the transmigration of the soul. These the richer sort applied to, as skilled in the science of the stars, and of the motions of the celestial globe, from whence they drew their auguries. 536. Some elder.] Some priest, whom the Latins called senior, and the Greeks presbyter-both which signify the same thing. Who hides the public lightning.] If a place were struck by lightning, it was expiated by a priest. They gathered what was scorched by lightning, and praying with a low voice, hid or buried it in the earth. These lightnings were reckoned either public or private, as where the mischief happened either to public buildings, or to private houses, and the like. Private lightnings were supposed to forebode things to come for ten years only; public lightnings, for thirty years. 587. Placed in the Circus.] The common sort apply to the quacks and cheats who ply in the Circus. In the mount.] What was called Tarquin's mount, which he cast up on the eastern side of Rome, as a defence to the city-this was also the resort of these fraudulent people, who took but small fees for their services. 588. Shews no long gold, &c.] The poet, at 1. 581, speaks of women in middling circumstances, who go to the Circus in order to find an itinerant fortuneteller, whom they may consult at a small price. See the note. Then he mentions the rich, who could afford to pay well, and therefore employed a more expensive sort. Here he mentions the lower order of women, which, in contradís. tinction to the former, he describes as wearing no gold as ornaments about their necks. Hence I think nullis cervicibus aurum the right To the rich a Phrygian augur will give answers, and an hired 585 The plebeian fate is placed in the Circus, and in the mount: Consults before the Phala and the pillars of the dolphins, Whether she shall marry the blanket-seller, the victualler being left. Yet these undergo the peril of child-birth, and bear all The fatigues of a nurse, their fortune urging them : But hardly any lying-in woman lies in a gilded bed; So much do the arts, so much the medicines of such a one prevail, Who causes barrenness, and conduces to kill men in the Womb. Rejoice, thou wretch, and do thou thyself reach forth To be drunk whatever it may be for if she is willing to distend, And disturb her womb with leaping children, you may be, 590 595 reading-i. c. nullum aurum cervicibus-Hypallage. See sat. ii. 1. 90, and note. Reading nudis cervicibus, &c. as if the vulgar, or common sort, wore necklaces of gold about their necks, seems a contradiction. 589. Pillars of the dolphins.] In the Circus were lofty pillars, on which were placed the statues of dolphins, erected for ornament. Others understand this of the temple of Cn. Domitius, in the Flaminian Circus, on which were the figures of Nereids riding upon dolphins. The Phale were wooden towers. These places are also mentioned here as the resort of gypsies, common fortunetellers, and such sort of folks, who were consulted by the vulgar. 590. Whether, &c.] She is supposed to determine, by the answers from these wretches, which of her sweethearts she shall take, and which leave. 591. These undergo, &c.] The poet now lashes the vice of procuring abortion, so frequent among the ladies of Rome, and introduces it with saying, that, indeed, the poorer sort not only bring children, but nurse them too; but then this is owing to their low circumstances, which will not afford them the means of abortion, or of putting out their children to nurse. 593. Hardly any lying-in woman, &c.] i. e. You'll scarce hear of a lying-in woman among the ladies of quality, such is the power of art, such the force of medicines, prepared by those who make it their business to cause barrenness and abortion ! 595. Rejoice, thou wretch.] He calls the husband infelix, an unhappy wretch, i. e. in having such a wife as is capable of having children by others; but yet he bids him rejoice in administering me. dicines to make her miscarry, for that, if she went her full time, she would produce a spurious child. Ethiopis fortasse pater: mox decolor hæres Hic magicos affert cantus, hic Thessala vendit 600 605 610 599. Father of a blackmoor.] Forced to be reputed the father of a child, begotten on your wife by some black slave. 600. Fill your will, &c.] A discoloured child, the real offspring of a Moor, will be your heir, and as such inherit your estate after your death (tabulas here means the pages of the last will and testament). See sat. i. 1. 63 and 68. Never, &c.] To meet him in a morning would be construed into an ill omen. The Romans thought it ominous to see a blackmoor in a morning, if he was the first man they met. 601. The joys and vows, &c.] Here he inveighs against the women who deceive their husbands by introducing supposititious children for their own. 602. At the dirty lakes.] Some usual place where children were exposed. The poor husband looks on them as his joy, and as the fruit of his vows and wishes, which are thus deceived by bastards, who are exposed at some place in Rome, (famous probably for such things,) and taken from thence to the houses of the great, who bring them up, thinking them their own, till at length they pass for the offspring of noble families, and fill the chief offices in the city. from Salian priests. These were priests of Mars, and so made among the nobility. 603. The names of the Scauri, &c.] Being supposed to be nobly born, they falsely bear the names of the nobility who bring them up as their own. 604. Waggish Fortune.] Fortune may here properly be styled waggish, as diverting herself with these frauds. 605. Smiling on the naked infants, &c.] Exposed as they were by night, she stands their friend, and, delighting to carry on the deceit, makes them, as it were, her favourites-makes their concerns her own, and laughs in secret at the farce they are to exhibit, when conveyed to the lofty palaces of the great, and educated there, Perhaps, the father of a blackmoor: soon a discolour'd heir 600 I pass by supposititious children, and the joys, and vows, often. Deceived at the dirty lakes, and the Salian priests fetch'd From thence, who are to bear the names of the Scauri In a false body. Waggish Fortune stands by night Smiling on the naked infants: all these she cherishes, And wraps in her bosom, then conveys them to high houses, And prepares a secret farce for herself: these she loves, With these she charges herself, and, laughing, produces her own foster-children. One brings magical incantations, another sells Thessalian Philtres, by which they can vex the mind of the husband, 605 610 And clap his posteriors with a slipper: that you are foolish, is from thence; Thence darkness of mind, and great forgetfulness of things, Which you did but just now. Yet this is tolerable, if you don't Begin to rave too, as that uncle of Nero, till she produces them into the highest honours of the city. Thisreminds one of HOR. lib. iii. ode xxix. 1. 49-52 Fortuna, sævo læta negotio, Ludum insolentem ludere pertinax &c. 608. She charges herself.] His se ingerit-i. e. she charges herself with the care of them. So the French say-s'ingérer dans des affaires des autres. Her own foster-children.] Alumnus signifies a nurse-child, or foster-child, and may be well applied to these children, nursed, as it were, in the bosom and lap of Fortune, who has not only preserved them from perishing, but has contrived to make them pass for the children of nobles, and to be educated accordingly. 609. One brings, &c.] Now the poet inveighs against love-potions, and magical arts, which were used by the women towards their husbands. 609-10. Thessalian philtres.] Philtra denotes love-potions,_or medicines causing love. For these Thessaly was famous, and the Roman women either procured, or learnt them from thence. See 1. 132, and note the first. 610. Vex the mind, &c.] So deprive him of his reason and understanding as to use him as they please, even in the most disgraceful manner. 611. From thence.] i. e. From these philtres. 613. This is tolerable.] That you suffer in your understanding and recollection is tolerable, in comparison of what is much more fatal, that is to say, being driven into raving madness. 614. Uncle of Nero, &c.] Cæsar Caligula, whom Cæsonia, his wife, drenched with a love-potion made of the hippomanes, (a little skin, or bit of flesh, taken from the forehead of a colt newly foaled,) Cui totam tremuli frontem Cæsonia pulli Hæc poscit ferrum, atque ignes, hæc potio torquet, 615 620 Hæc lacerat mistos equitum eum sanguine patres. 625 630 which drove him into such madness, that he would often shew her naked to his friends. This potion of Cæsonia's was infinitely worse than Agrippina's mushroom, for that only destroyed a drivelling old emperor: but Caligula, after his draught, became a merciless, cruel, and bloody tyrant, and committed infinite slaughter without distinction. 615. A trembling colt.] Tremuli-trembling with cold on being dropped from the dam. 616. What woman will not do, &c.] i. e. Other women, stirred up by the example of so great a personage, will not be afraid to do the same. 617. All things were burning.] Alluding to the devastations of Caligula's mad cruelty, which raged and destroyed like fire. Fell to pieces, &c.] A metaphor taken from an house falling down by the beams giving way-so every bond of civil and human society was destroyed by the tyrant, and seemed to threaten universal ruin. 618. If Juno, c.] The sovereign of Rome, being thus driven into madness by his wife, was as destructive to Rome, as if Juno had made Jupiter mad enough to have done it himself. Perhaps the poet alludes to the outrageous fondness of Jupiter for Juno, effected by the cestus, or girdle of Venus. 619. The mushroom of Agrippina.] The wife of the emperor Claudius, whom, that she might make her son Nero emperor, she poisoned with mushrooms, by contriving a subtle poison to be put among them. See sat. v. 1. 147, 8, and note. 620. One old man.] The emperor Claudius, who was poisoned in the sixty-fourth year of his age, very much debilitated and infirm, from his excesses and debaucheries. 621-2. To descend into heaven.] Claudius had been canonized by Nero after his death, and ranked among the gods. The poet here humourously describes him as going downwards to heaven, i. c. |